


We Band of Brothers

by helcinda



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Families of Choice, Gen, OT4 - Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-29 05:05:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5116628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helcinda/pseuds/helcinda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s one more show to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Band of Brothers

**Author's Note:**

> Title from _Henry V_
> 
> Unbeta'd due to too many feelings

Liam is in the middle of a cycle of watching Drake videos when Louis barges into his room with a stack of pizza boxes, shouting, “Fuck the Sun!” in the direction of Niall’s room down the hall. “Thank fuck for Niall’s damage control,” he mutters, dropping the pizzas on the table in the corner before bounding over to where Liam is stretched out on the sofa. When they got in yesterday, Liam was really disappointed to find out it wasn’t nearly as comfortable as it looked, but he’s hoping if he uses it enough before Sunday it will feel less foamy and weird.

Louis grabs one of the earbuds Liam is using, sticking it in his ear before making a face. “Drake again?’

Liam pauses the video (he’s on his fourth loop, it’s not as emotionally striking as it was the first go round) just in time to catch Louis’s hand before he goes for Liam’s nipples. Instead, Louis bodily throws himself on top of Liam, knocking the breath out of Liam entirely. He’s warm, still in his stage clothes, sighing a long hot breath across the sensitive skin on Liam’s neck.

“One more,” Louis says quietly, small enough that Liam could ignore it if he wanted to.

“Yeah,” he replies. “But then there’s promo and the radio concerts in America. We’ll get to perform a few more times, it’s not going to be a sudden stop.”

“It won’t be the same, though,” Louis says, pushing himself upright with his full weight on Liam’s chest.

Liam feels a little short of breath. “No, it won’t.”

It’s a bit scary, the idea of next year. Christmas will come and go, and afterwards there will be no tour preparations; no rehearsals to laugh through or duffel bags to pack full to bursting. He knows he won’t be left entirely on his own, but he’s already sad that it won’t be the same without the camaraderie of a tour to hold everything together. Niall will be in Ireland, Harry will go to California, and Louis will have the baby. It’s good, he supposes, that they all be able to grow up and live their lives, but he’s beginning to mourn the loss of something he’s not even sure he’s actually losing.

“Hey,” Louis calls from across the room where he’s setting up the XBOX. “You have FIFA 16 in here, right?”

Liam clears his throat, sitting up on the sofa and unplugging his headphones from his phone. “Yeah, it’s just in my bag by the table.” He shoots a text off to Niall, _FIFA and pizza in my room!_ before opening the pizzas one by one. “Ah, damn it,” he mutters.

Louis materialises at his elbow. “What, wrong order?”

“No,” he says, tilting the box towards Louis. “We got Harry’s veggie one, dunno which one they took to his.” He roots around for where his phone has slid under one of the boxes. _We hav ur pizza, we r not ur delivery boys!!!! Come over to pick it up and bring the one youve got with you!_

Niall attempts to beat down Liam’s hotel room door as Harry is responding with a quick _be down in a mo_.

“Lads’ night in!” Niall crows, holding up a six-pack he got from God-knows-where.

“Liam is sorting our food, you and me are up first,” Louis says, tossing a controller in Niall’s direction from where he’s taking up the majority of the sofa.

Harry shows up about five minutes after Louis starts throwing elbows, which gives Liam an excuse to get out of range. “Hiya, sorry, don’t know what happened there; which one did you get?” Liam says all in one breath.

Harry sets the box down on the table with all the rest, moving a little slower than usual with his heavy boot. “Louis’s jalapeno,” he says, wrinkling his nose a little.

“Gross,” Liam says under his breath. He digs Harry’s pizza out from under Niall’s, half of which has already disappeared. “This one’s yours. Hope it’s still warm, sorry you had to come down here.” Harry’s in his pyjamas already; his hair is up and his eyes look sleepy.

“‘s alright,” Harry shrugs. “I was a little wound up anyway. You know. Thinking about tomorrow and all.”

“Yeah.” Liam wants to reach out and touch him, wrap him up in a hug, but he thinks they’re all feeling a little fragile right now, and he doesn’t want to be the one to start falling apart.

Harry rocks a little on his feet, holding the pizza box and glancing over to where Louis is now sitting on top of Niall, who is still attempting to play while biting any bit of Louis he can reach.

“You can stay if you want, Haz, you know you can always stay,” Liam says quietly, trying not to gain the attention of the other boys.

“Do you, uh - do you have a notebook I could borrow while I’m here?” 

“Yeah, hold on, let me - sit anywhere you want,” Liam says, heading over to his bag to get his writing notebook.

“Payno, you’re up!” Niall yells, rolling out from under Louis. “Oh, Harry, hello! You're staying then?”

“Yeah,” Harry says, settling on Liam’s bed with his food, pulling the boot off and tucking his bare feet up underneath the duvet. Niall passes the XBOX controller to Liam, taking the notebook in exchange, and settles on the bed near Harry, laying on his stomach with his feet waving in the air, dangerously close to kicking Harry in the face.

“You want in on FIFA, Haz?” Louis asks, slightly distracted, as he and Liam set up their game.

“No, thanks,” Harry says, clicking the end of his pen multiple times before Niall pinches him. “Sorry,” he mumbles before sticking the end between his teeth.

Louis punches him in the arm. “Game’s loaded, Payno, pay attention so I don’t kick your arse too badly.”

“Hah,” Liam mutters, but his heart isn’t really in the game. He keeps thinking about the feeling of being on stage, playing to thousands of their fans, giving and receiving so much love that sometimes he feels like his body can’t contain it all. He thinks about how tomorrow will be their last time to feel that for awhile, and he needs to gather those moments up as much as he can, to carry him through the next year. 

But as much as he will miss performing with his band, his boys, what he’ll miss more are moments like these: Louis beating him soundly at FIFA, Niall providing colour commentary, and Harry hovering quietly in the background, rounding them out and filling in all the spaces they miss when it’s just the three of them going out after shows.

“You _lose_ , Payno!” Louis crows, directly in his ear. “Niall, please come save Liam from himself.”

Liam smiles a little, pinches Louis firmly in the soft spot under his upper arm, and leaves the controller on the floor for Niall to collect when he wants. It hasn’t been just the four of them by themselves, together, in a very long time, and he wants to soak up every moment they have. He detours to the corner with his suitcase and strips off his jeans, ignoring Louis’s wolf whistle and tugging his pyjama bottoms on, before he wanders to the bed and climbs up carefully beside Harry, trying not to jostle him too much.

“Hi Liam,” Harry says, and he sounds as tired as Liam feels.

“How’s the foot?”

Harry hums. “Hurts, but, you know. It’s broken.”

Liam nods and forces himself not to say anything. He’s fussed at Harry enough times already for his thoughts on Harry’s foot to be well-known. Liam shifts all the pillows over so he has something to lean against, and once he’s situated Harry scoots down to rest his head on Liam’s shoulder. He’s still chewing on the pen and the page in front of him is blank. Liam tilts his head back against the headboard, closing his eyes for a brief moment, listening to Louis and Niall’s attempts at trash talk, which inevitably turns into a shoving match.

“Did you take something for it?” he asks, after a too-long moment.

“Hm?” Harry says, muffled a little by the pen.

“Your foot, did you take something for it?”

Harry pokes him in the side. “Yes, mum, I took pain meds for my broken foot.” Liam can tell without looking that he’s smiling.

Liam tips his head forward to look at where Louis and Niall have fallen nearly silent; they’ve started a new game and are playing with singular focus, Louis’s tongue poking out a little from between his teeth. 

Liam’s eyes are starting to feel gritty, and Harry’s head is getting heavier and heavier on his shoulder as Louis and Niall play through two more games before they finally give up. 

Louis starts rooting through Liam’s bag again. “Do you have any films in here, Liam?”

Liam thinks back through the random shit he’d thrown in before leaving three weeks ago. “Yeah, I think...Iron Man? Maybe? There’s something in there, at least.”

Louis is quiet for another moment before making a short noise of triumph. “Me and Niall will be back in a mo, don’t fall asleep.” The door bangs loudly against the lock bar that Louis flipped out, and Liam is glad he won’t have to get up to let them in. Harry is still quiet against him, and he’d think he’s asleep, except he keeps making abortive movements towards the page with his pen.

Niall and Louis come tumbling back in as the DVD menu page loads, crowding onto the bed in a mess of elbows and knees. Liam tries to scoot over as much as possible without sending Harry off the edge, and he’s glad poor Harry’s foot isn’t in the middle of the crowded bed.

“Iron Man, sweet!” Niall cries as Louis selects play. “Nice call-back.”

Liam has no idea what Niall means by that, and he knows Louis and Harry must look as baffled as he feels, because Niall laughs before snapping a picture of the three of them.

“No one remembers? Looks like I’m going to be the one writing that tell-all book, then,” Niall grins. “That first night at the bungalow? No one could decide on a film, and Liam pulls Iron Man out of his backpack, like a little magician, and Louis nearly kissed him, he was so happy.”

Louis laughs, bright and loud next to Liam. “I do remember that, actually; it was the first time I thought you and I could possibly actually get along with each other.”

Liam rolls his eyes and grabs Louis’s hand where he’s trying to worm his way under Liam’s top. “And I regret it every day of my life.”

Louis pokes his cheek where Liam is trying not to smile. “Liam Payne, you do not! Take it back!”

Liam feels another wave of belonging wash over him; he would choose no other way to spend the last night of tour with his boys, as they began, just them against the world. He wraps his arm around Louis’s shoulders, pulling him into his armpit as Louis squawks wildly and nearly smacks a laughing Niall in the face. Harry’s shoulder is shaking where it’s pressed into Liam’s side, and Liam is so happy he’s here with them.

“Can we please watch the film in peace, you two?” Niall says over the sound of Louis’s protests and Liam’s laughter; Louis comes up looking a bit mussed but happy, and Liam settles back against his pillow nest.

It’s a tight squeeze with all of them on the bed, and Louis is half on Niall’s lap, but they settle in with the remainder of the pizza that Niall tossed at the foot of the bed and the lights turned down low. Harry has gotten quieter and quieter next to Liam, and Liam tries to shift over to make sure there’s still enough room for him at the edge of the bed. He glances over and sees that Harry’s already down for the count, his hand slack around the edge of the notebook, and his open mouth half-pressed to Liam’s shoulder. Liam grimaces; he’s probably going to get dribbled on before morning. He carefully reaches over to set the notebook to the side and catches a glimpse of the only thing Harry has written all night, a single line reading, _I’ll miss this_.

Liam carefully flips the notebook closed so the page doesn’t get messed up. He wants to keep that one page forever.

*

They wake up the next morning in a chorus of groans and complaints. Niall is cuddled up to Louis’s chest, and Liam and Harry are practically spooning. It takes a long moment for Liam and Louis to untangle their feet, and Liam has never been happier waking up on tour.

Niall cheerfully calls them the oldest 22-year-olds on the planet in response to the multiple complaints about aching backs, and Louis and Harry immediately and loudly protest their inclusion in said age group.

It’s a good way to close this chapter, Liam thinks. There’s one more show to do. From here, the future is wide open, and for now, it’s enough.

**Author's Note:**

> (I realized as I was getting ready to post this that this reads much more cynical about inter-band relationships than I actually feel! I AM ALL ABOUT OT4, I LOVE THEM A LOT.)


End file.
